Bartók

String Quartets Nos 1-6

Arcadia Quartet Chandos CHAN 10992(2) 160:06 mins (2 discs)

More attached to the string quartet than any other genre, Bartók left a testimony that remains both spiritually and technically challenging. Daunting and profoundly satisfying for listeners and players alike, his six quartets were composed at regular intervals across his creative life and comprise a cycle that stands second only to Beethoven’s and surely qualifies as the greatest 20th-century contribution to the quartet literature. No ensemble would want to miss out on tackling it, but especially not the fast-rising Arcadia Quartet with its roots in Transylvania.

Born in the westernmost part of present-day Romania, this great ★ungarian composer breathes the spirit of multi-ethnic Transylvania. The muted buzz we hear in the first scherzo of the Fourth Quartet suggests a flight of the fireflies as the composer evokes the nocturnal insect world of the ★ungarian plains. Bartók often quoted folk music and sometimes made his own; in the searingly melismatic Second Quartet he reveals his then recent discovery of North African music. Whatever the inspirations, these players are alive to them, just as they are alert to the technical demands lurking around every corner.

These Arcadians also find haunting desolation. The First Quartet, reflecting the same unhappy love affair enshrined in the First Violin Concerto, takes on Beethovenian intensity here.

The Sixth Quartet dates from

1939, a time not only of war but of Bartók’s mother’s death and his own impending exile, and the Mesto that so sadly introduces each movement takes over completely in a beautifully balanced performance. John Allison

PERFORMANCE

RECORDING